E-Commerce on WordPress: Everything You Need To Know

So, you want to build up a proper store and are looking to use WordPress. It’s a powerful, scalable solution that’s also entirely free!

However, you should not rely solely on WordPress without first exploring other solutions. WordPress is an excellent platform, but it is not suitable for everyone.

If you only want to sell a few products as a side business, utilising WordPress is like taking the ship rather than the plane; it is time-consuming and unnecessary.

What is e-commerce on WordPress?

Everything you need to build a strong, successful website.

eCommerce (also known as electronic commerce) is the process of purchasing and selling goods or services, money-making, and transferring data over an electronic medium (Internet). This network enables people to conduct business without regard for distance or time.

Choosing the best eCommerce plugin for your business is vital because a better platform equals more opportunities for growth. 

Users frequently lose money because they did not conduct adequate research before deciding on an eCommerce platform to launch their store.

WordPress is a content management system (CMS) that lets you host and create websites. WordPress includes a plugin architecture and a template system, allowing you to tailor any website to your business, blog, portfolio, or online store.

But how?

Below are nine ways to get your WordPress eCommerce website up and running:

1. Determine the ideal domain name

Which is more difficult: naming your child or finding the perfect domain name?

Yes, your child will be stuck with the name you chose until they can persuade a court to alter it, but you can obtain name inspiration from historical figures, literary characters, or even your favourite TV show.

When it comes to domain names, though, you must verify that your digital child is truly distinctive. There will be no more repetitions.

So, what makes a good domain name?

Why are your domain names important?

Your website’s domain name is the address that has been assigned to it. It’s the part of your URL that comes after the ‘www.’

It is just as vital as your company name or logo to your brand. Even if you’ve nailed every other aspect of your branding, if your website address turns off potential customers, they’ll likely go elsewhere.

First impressions are crucial, and your domain may be the first impression that customers have of your brand.

5 Things to Think About When Choosing a winning Domain Name

As with other major business decisions, there are numerous points of view on how to choose the best domain name. To make things easier, here are five crucial topics to consider.

• Choose Your Top-Level Domain Extension Carefully

A Top-Level Domain (TLD) is the portion of your domain name that follows the site’s name. The most frequent top-level domains (TLDs) are.com,.net, and.org.

There are many newer TLD possibilities, but it’s usually advisable to stick with.com if feasible. People are quite familiar with it because it has been around the longest and is the most popular.

Of course, there’s a chance you won’t be able to get a good domain name with a .com TLD because many are already occupied. However, if you must find an alternative, it is not the end of the world.

TLDs containing keywords make it easy to optimise your website for SEO.

• Strategically incorporate keywords
• Keywords are used for more than just content. Search engines utilise your domain name to calculate search rankings and to comprehend what your site is about. As a result, it is crucial to involve keywords whenever available.

Your domain name should contain keywords that are related to your website. It is far more vital to accurately portray your content than to add keywords for the purpose of adding keywords. If you’re stuck for ideas,  Google Keyword Planner can help.

This free tool allows you to search for keywords based on search traffic and other characteristics to uncover terms that people actually use. 

But don’t get too carried away. Using too many keywords, particularly popular ones, can make your site appear uninteresting and possibly untrustworthy.

• Important to ensure your domain name is easy to pronounce and spell.

You most certainly want your domain name to be memorable. And choosing something easy and eye-catching might be the best decision. Remember, no matter how cool it appears spelled out, keep it simple cause eventually you’ll have to give someone your website or email address vocally at some point.

Word-of-mouth advertising is still effective. Furthermore, it only works if people can pronounce your domain. 

“If you build a great experience, customers tell each other about that. Word of mouth is very powerful.” 

~ Jeff Bezos

This also makes the name easier to remember, increasing the likelihood that people would visit the site and share it with their networks.

• Avoid using hyphens.

What are hyphens? 

A punctuation mark that unites two parts of a word or two compound words, or that allows a word to break at the end of a line, is characterised as hyphens. For example, a pick-me-up or rock-forming minerals. 

Using hyphens may appear to be a novel technique to obtain the desired domain name. Regrettably, they are difficult to describe verbally. 

They also make typing the domain more challenging. Some folks will almost certainly forget about them and end up on someone else’s website.

In general, try to avoid anything that isn’t a letter when contemplating domain name ideas. This involves the substitution of digits for letters. These kinds of details make it easier for people to misremember and mistype the name.

• Perform a domain name search.

Once you’ve reduced your search to a few choices, use a research tool to see if it’s still available.

However, just because a domain name is available does not mean that someone else does not have a legitimate claim to it. To be safe, conduct a trademark search before making your decision.

It’s also a good idea to make sure you have acceptable social media handles. If you can’t discover an exact match, try anything related to your domain name.

2. Sign up with a web host

Now that you’ve registered the domain name, it’s time to find a web hosting service.

All websites necessitate hosting. It’s the same as renting some internet house buying – ensures that you pick a room with lots of sleeping space!

When deciding on the best hosting company and the type of hosting you need, consider the type of store you’re developing.

We recommend that you avoid shared hosting. When you share a server with other websites, if one of them gets stolen or hacked, your website is also vulnerable. When dealing with people’s credit card information, this is simply not worth the risk.

Moreover, you do not need to use a specialised registration service to purchase a domain name. 

The finest web hosting companies, such as BlueHost, HostWinds, HostGator, and DreamHost, include a registration method as part of the sign-up process. When you sign up for a web hosting subscription, you usually get a free domain name.

Why do you require web hosting?

When it comes to hosting your website on the internet, the first thing that gets in your way is a hosting service. Renting space for your store or shop window is the best way to compare hosting services. 

The name of your website (domain name) resolves to the server address where your website is kept, such as your city’s address book, which contains the addresses of stores and other public places.

The only difference is that when a user puts your website’s name into their browser’s address bar, they are instantaneously directed to your website, and your hosting provider gives the resources you saved to show the requested page.

Because the notion of online services has been rapidly growing over the last decade, the field of web hosting has changed considerably, and it now provides a vast array of different solutions for any requests and wants. 

These so-called “bundled offers” differ in terms of server technology, level of control provided, traffic quotas, and resources. 

In a competitive market, hosting providers strive to develop solutions that are ready-to-use for any customer and fit any budget. However, you can’t get everything for a penny.

Having said that, anyone today may locate a decent website hosting option for oneself without spending too much money on a service that they do not require.

Hosting companies simplify and assist their clients with all phases of preparation and do everything possible to ensure that you do not abandon your concept due to first troubles. 

Questions to ask yourself:

Choosing the best web host is simple if you know what your website requires from a host. To assist you, consider the following questions.

What kind of website am I creating?

Different types of websites have varying technical requirements. A WordPress website, for example, will have different technical requirements than a plain HTML one. First and foremost, consider how your website will be developed. You’ll then be more familiar with things like coding languages and databases that your web host requires.

Do I require email hosting?

We’ve already addressed the advantages of creating email addresses connected with your new website’s domain name. It would be a shame to miss out on this by failing to check whether your web host offers email hosting that meets your requirements.

How much data will I save and serve?

The bandwidth you’ll need from your web server is determined not only by traffic but also by the file size of the web pages. If your website contains a lot of data-heavy pages, you’ll need additional storage and bandwidth from your web server.

 A largely text-oriented site, such as a personal blog, will require less storage space and bandwidth, whereas a photographic gallery with many high-quality images will require more.

What kind of traffic might I expect?

Most likely, your traffic will be low at first, but if you intend to increase it to greater levels, you’ll need a flexible plan that allows you to increase your bandwidth capacity over time.

What is my hosting budget?

Consider how much you can afford to pay for hosting. If your budget is limited, your service may not have all of the bells and whistles. If your budget is a little more flexible, you might be able to receive some extra advantages, such as free SSL.

How technically savvy am I?

The beauty of the Internet these days is that anyone, regardless of expertise, can set up a website. Certain forms of website maintenance chores will necessitate a little more knowledge. 

If you lack the skills to operate your server, leave it to the professionals and use a fully managed web hosting service that does everything for you. If you intend to create a website for a personal blog or a small business, Managed WordPress Hosting, such as Namecheap’s EasyWP, is a good choice.

3. Install WordPress

WordPress can be installed in two ways

• Install with a simple click from your hosting control panel.

• Manually downloading and uploading WordPress to your blog/website

‘WordPress installation with a click’

As you might imagine, the first option is the most straightforward and the one we recommend. When looking for a hosting business, look for those that offer ‘one click’ installations – a sample of the best may be found on our list of the top WordPress hosts.

Once you’ve signed up with a server provider that offers this form of installation, all you have to do is navigate to your server dashboard and select the ‘Install WordPress’ option.

If your hosting provider does not offer one-click WordPress installation, you must first download WordPress and then upload it to your hosting dashboard. It’s straightforward enough; it’s just not as straightforward as it could be.

4. Install and set up WooCommerce

WooCommerce is a free and open-source WordPress e-commerce plugin. It is intended for small to medium-sized online shops that use WordPress. It currently has more than 4 million active installations. It’s safe to say it’s a smashing success, and it’s easy to see why.

To begin, it is completely free. WooCommerce, like WordPress, is a platform designed for the community.

While some ‘extensions’ may require purchase, you can convert your website into an online store for free.

This includes the following:

• Pages dedicated to products
• Checkout and cart
• Payment security
• Options for shipping and label printing
• Tax computations that are automatic
• Integration with services like Google Analytics and Facebook Pixel.

Top Tip: Setting up WooCommerce with Bluehost is a breeze. One of the most difficult aspects of running an eCommerce site is having everything ready to go live, but this is not the case with Bluehost’s WooCommerce plans. They include a pre-installed online store website theme and one-click payment processing setups.

If you don’t like WooCommerce for whatever reason, you can also choose your preferred alternatives.

For the time being, we’ll assume that’s what you’ll be using and lead you through the installation and configuration steps:

1. Install and configure the software WooCommerce

• Go into your WordPress admin area and navigate to the plugin category by clicking the ‘Plugin’ link in the left navigation.
• In the search bar, type ‘WooCommerce,’ then click the grey ‘Install Now’ option.
• After a few minutes, this icon will turn blue with the phrase ‘Activate’ written on it. Please visit this page. WooCommerce’s helpful installation wizard will then open, helping you through the rest of the installation process.

2. Include business information

• To begin, fill out your company’s details, which is pretty straightforward.
• Make certain that you select the proper option under ‘I intend to offer both physical and digital products.

3. Determine your payment choices

• The task is to decide the payment options you will accept in your store.
• We recommend that you activate Stripe, PayNow, and PayPal because they are the top popular payment methods. If you don’t have your accounts set up yet, you can add them later.

4. Verify shipping options

• Following that, you’ll be asked to select your shipping prices. WooCommerce will recognise your present location and establish it as your primary’ shipping zone,’ with the other option essentially being ‘the rest’.
• You could either establish a pre-set pricing for each location, offer free shipping, or integrate with certain carriers such as UPS or FedEx to get ‘real’ shipping costs.

5. Select complimentary plugins/themes

• The next step is to determine which ‘recommended’ plugins to use in your store, as well as whether to use WooCommerce’s own theme.
• It’s really simple to include these afterward, so don’t feel obligated to do so right now. We’ll go through preferred plugins and themes later in the tutorial, so feel safe to ‘unselect’ these for the time being unless you’re certain you needed them.

6. Jetpack should be activated at this point

You’ll be asked to enable Jetpack in the final configuration stage.

This will allow you to set up payments and automate taxes later on. Select ‘Continue with Jetpack’…

…and there you have it, your basic setting is complete! It’s now time to add your products.

When proceeding on, make sure that WooCommerce has been detected, installed, and active in the WordPress plugin directories.

Remember to include important business information as well as your delivery and payment options – don’t forget that you can modify them later!

5. Pick a theme

Your ‘theme’ will serve as the foundation for all of your web content. The power of WordPress is that it allows you to completely customise your site — by modifying or adding to the HTML code, you may easily wind up with stuff that looks none like the initial design.

However, unless you’re a coding expert looking for extensive modification, it’s best to select a theme that appears as near to your intended finished product as feasible.

In other words, choose a theme that you enjoy and will function well for your eCommerce site – even if it means spending money on a premium template from a third-party site. In the long run, it will save you time and effort!

ThemeForest (large selection) and Elegant Themes (limited, curated collection) are two notable third-party sites for purchasing themes, but there are many others.

Once you’ve got a good variety of products ready to launch, it’s time to get to the exciting part: picking a theme!

The theme directory, which you may access from your dashboard, contains a variety of free themes.

1. 1. Go to your WordPress and sign in.
   2. Put your mouse over ‘Appearance,’ then click ‘Themes.’ This will bring you to the theme dashboard.
   3. Select the ‘Add New’ button atop the themes, then explore themes for ‘Featured,’ ‘Popular,’ and so on, or use the searching field to find specific categories.
   4. Explore a few themes until you get one you prefer, then click ‘Install’ to save it.

• After several moments, an ‘Activate’ button will pop up beneath the theme. When you select this, the theme becomes yours!

To set a pro theme on your website, follow these steps:

1. Install your chosen theme’s.zip file.
2. Enter your WordPress Website.
3. Drag your mouse over ‘Appearance,’ then select ‘Themes.’ It will bring you to the theme interface.
4. Select the ‘Add New’ button atop the themes. This will open the WordPress theme menu.
5. Select the blue ‘Upload Theme’ icon at the top.
6. You will next be asked to select a.zip file from your PC. Select your desired theme files.
7. After that, you’ll get a confirmation message with a link to enable your theme. That’s all there is to it; you’re set to go!

Word of advice: WooCommerce has its original theme, Storefront, which, as you’d think, works flawlessly with WooCommerce, looking eye-catching.

However, because anyone can technically create a template and post it online, it’s critical that you evaluate how reliable one is before you make the leap. If you use a shoddy theme, you may leave yourself open to hackers. But don’t forget to ‘preview’ each one to get a sense of how your actual site might appear.

Before proceeding to the following step, ensure that you have:

1. 1. You’ve looked at both free and paid themes.
   2. You’ve figured a style you want and tried it out with the ‘preview’ function.
   3. You’ve checked the feedback to make sure it’s trustworthy.

• You’ve downloaded the theme 

6. Include Products

You’ll be prompted to add your personal products after installing Jetpack — the final step of your initial WooCommerce installation.

It’s fine if you’re not quite able to publish yet. When you resume to your dashboard, choose ‘Products’ from the menu on the left, followed by ‘Add New.

You’ll need the following items for each product you publish:

Product name: For example, Cute Blue Skinny Jeans 

Price: For example, $20.99

Image of the Product: The main image of the product should be a shot of the entire product from the front.

Added product picture (optional, but preferred): Include as many diverse viewpoints as possible, as well as camera angles of finer features.

Product information: For example, “a high-quality pair of jeans with a stylish design and convenient back and front pockets for added convenience.”

A succinct product description: A short product description can read, ‘Pin-tucks in the centre emphasise vertical lines for a more pleasing shape for individuals who wear it.

Product category (if you have more than one): For example, Women Jeans

Install extra plugins: Along with WooCommerce, we recommend the following three plugins for online stores:

Yoast SEO

It makes no difference if you have the best online store in the world if no one can discover it!

Yoast SEO, a handy plugin that will help you climb the search engine rankings, increasing your chances of landing on page one. SEO is an abbreviation for search engine optimization; it comprises making tiny changes to your website to help search engines better ‘read’ and ‘understand’ your content and to ‘prioritise’ it.

Site Reviews for feedback

Proof has frequently been proved to be one of the most important factors in persuading consumers to perform a desired action – in this case, acquiring your products. After you install Site Reviews, customers will be able to leave reviews on your site.

It’s simple to add plugins to your site:

1. Go into your WordPress dashboard.
2. Select ‘Plugins,’ then ‘Add New.’
3. To discover specific plugins or general functionality, utilise the search box in the top right-hand corner.
4. Once you’ve chosen one you prefer the idea of, check out its reviews and ratings to ensure it’s trustworthy.
5. When you’ve made your decision, click the ‘Install Now’ button.
6. WordPress will display a completion message and invite you to click ‘Activate Plugin’ once the plugin has been downloaded.
7. Then, navigate to settings to configure your plugin – each one will have a different method for doing so, but instructions should be available in the plugin description.

Before proceeding to the following step, ensure that you have:

Thought about any extras you need for your site 

Found the right plugins to add this functionality

Checked reviews to make sure they’re trustworthy, before then installing 

8. Include stuff that converts

It’s now time to go over the copy on your most crucial pages again. To find these vital pages, go to ‘Pages,’ then ‘All Pages.’

For the time being, however, we will focus on a few specific types of content. You’ll be well on your way to developing a profitable eCommerce store if you meet all of the following criteria:

1. Microcopy

‘Microcopy,’ also known as ‘UX copy,’ pertains to little pieces of navigational copy on your website, as well as issue alerts and ‘call-to-action (CTA).

Word for word, this is the most vital content on your website. It guides users around your site and convinces them at major parts (for example, when they are about money).

2. Product Specifications

Whatever you’re offering, your product specifications have a significant influence on your profit line. Obviously, decent images are required. However, it is also critical to provide precise and persuasive representations of what you expect customers to buy. 

It should be succinct yet informative – and, as the name suggests, descriptive.

Consider everything you’d want to know if you were purchasing the things for yourself, particularly items that aren’t obvious from the product photos. Use bullet points to separate text and maintain consistency in layout and contents across all products.

Consider using these key points when developing your product requirements.

• Provide as many details regarding qualities and specs as possible. Concentrate on perks and outcomes, and don’t miss to include buzzwords.
• Make use of slogans, numbered lists, and be creative with your product photographs and summaries.
• Use vocabulary that makes customers feel the way you want them to feel.

3. Product Illustrations

The quality of your product’s pictures may help or hurt your website. For the greatest results, use a high-quality lens and a plain background. The usual rule is, ‘the more product photographs you have, the finer.’ Maintain uniformity in your product photos and descriptions for a professional-looking website.

9. Make your website public

The Last Step!

Go to your website. Navigate to your website’s domain location on your browser’s website. Your site ought to be active as soon as the files have completed uploading to your website’s Internet location.

If you’re basically satisfied with how your site operates, it’s time to make it public. Remember that you can always ‘Preview’ pages to see how they would seem in real life.

This is the easy part!

Select ‘Settings,’ then ‘Privacy.’ You should be able to declare your site ‘Public’ once you’ve uploaded your privacy policy.

That’s the only thing there is to it! The nine ways to create a Profitable Ecommerce Website.